GainesRidge Dinner
Club and Catering Service has been providing this area with delicious
food, good service, and gracious atmosphere, since October, 1985. The
ante-bellum dwelling in which GainesRidge is located was built in the late
1820's. Its modified I-frame architecture, absence of a center hallway,
and Federal style interior, show that it predates the Greek revival style
of building, popular during the 1840's and 50's. A landmark, it was once
the only two-story building between Black's Bluff and Allenton, two early
settlements almost 50 miles apart. Certainly it is one of the oldest
structures still standing in the area.

The origin of the actual builder has become obscure with time, but it is
known that one of the early owners was Reverend Ebeneezer Hearn, a
Methodist Circuit Rider, whose family gave GainesRidge its historical
name, "The Hearn Place." Reverend Hearn was a soldier in the War
of 1812 and is buried in the Camden Cemetery. In 1898, the Hearn Place
passed into the family of its present owner, Betty Gaines Kennedy, who now
operates the dinner club.

The name "GainesRidge" was chosen for the business because it is
the maiden name of Mrs. Kennedy and her sister, Haden G. Marsh, who was
co-owner during the founding and first year of operation. It is the same
Gaines family of George Strother Gaines, Indian Factor and prominent
citizen of west Alabama in the early 1800's, and his brother, General
Edmund Pendleton Gaines, who captured Aaron Burr and McIntosh Bluffs, and
for whom Ft. Gaines in Mobile Bay is named. Gainesville, Gainestown, and
the antebellum mansion Gaineswood, in Demopolis, were also named in honor
of these well-known brothers.

Like most old houses, GainesRidge has its share of ghosts - the woman who
screams and calls out, and has been seen floating past windows - the
incessant crying of a baby - the aroma of pipe smoke in one room, when
nobody in the house is smoking - and the reflected image of a tall, gaunt
man, dressed in black, with a long beard. (Old Ebeneezer Hearn, himself?)
But these seem to be harmless apparitions and only serve to enhance the
charm that is GainesRidge.